I'm not sure how widespread the news is about what has happened at four of the public schools in the county this past week. Searching for 'Germantown HS TN pledge of allegiance' gives no relevant results. The only reason I'm aware is through conversation with my sister, a coordinator at Bridges who works with students at the high school. The Gandhi Youth Conference, held at Rhodes this weekend, had some discussion of it, so I'm hoping more youth are aware of the situation.
To give background to non-Memphians, all the schools where protests occurred are part of the Shelby County School system, but only Ridgeway and White Station are within the city. Both of those schools are hubs for honors students because of their reputations for high AP- and IB-scorers. Collierville and Germantown are within their respective townships, both of which are affluent and majority white, a huge departure from most of the Shelby County schools.
Here are the facts as I know it. Protests by black students were staged at four high schools: Ridgeway, White Station, Collierville, and Germantown. The only actions taken were for black students to not stand during the Pledge of Allegiance as a protest against a country which has not protected them as equal citizens. At at least one of the schools, police officers arrived to deal with the peaceful protesters; what came of that, I don't know. At Germantown, a group text circulated about how the black students were terrorists who deserved to be killed. At least one student talked of bringing rope to lynch them, another threatened to bring a gun to school and kill them all. The texts came to the attention of the administration and at least one young man has been suspended for, I believe, 45 days. I have not been told of any further action being taken.
What would happen if a young black man threatened to kill all the white people at his school? To shoot them, lynch them, whatever. I can promise that he would be expelled. I can guess that he would undergo a psychiatric evaluation and be placed overnight in a ward to figure out whether he would act on his homicidal urges. I can guess that the story would be plastered over the news.
But a white young man? The school doesn't want to talk about it. And he'll be back within a few months. My understanding is that this young man is not a pariah at his school. He's not the stereotype of the boy who wears black in the back of the cafeteria who everyone ignores. No, he's just a regular student. One who can spout stomach-churning racism and get away with no permanent consequences.
Honestly, I don't know what to do. I'm furious. I want to take action. But what action can I take? I can't take it out on a boy who has been raised in a racist community which has told him this is okay. He's just a symptom. I don't know how to face something so large as a system which treats my peers as second-class. We read about ways that protests were staged, about how people came together, and I know we can do that again, but I have to admit that I feel like a coward. What should I do? What should you?
During my attempt to learn more about these events, I stumbled upon the article, “Students form huge prayer circle at Germantown High School,” by Maggie Green. On Wednesday, September 28, 2016, hundreds of students, both black and white, circled around the flag poll outside of Germantown High School and prayed together. Kelvin Gee recorded the prayer and posted the video on his Facebook page with the caption, “Can young people praying at a school go viral instead of violence?” His video showed the African American student, who was leading the prayer, declaring, “God, we are making a difference, one student at one time God!” The video received over 71,000 reactions and 3,800 shares in just hours. Viewers agreed with Gee that recently there has been too much violence depicted in media, which negatively reflects communities and high schools, and not enough videos demonstrating peace. Gee wanted the Germanton High School students to be noticed for their nonviolence. The video affectively proved that showing a video of students praying is far more powerful than images of violence.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the article:
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/33277453/students-form-huge-prayer-circle-at-germantown-high-school
Kala,
ReplyDeleteI attended Germantown High School. I know for a fact that the system for which students are suspended is completely unfair--the who and the why is unbalanced. For the amount of students of color that go to that school, there is a large percentage of them that end up getting suspended or expelled.
I feel like the media attention has not been that big about sitting for the pledge of allegiance, because it's been happening for years at GHS. Whether it's been happening as a form of protest, I'm not quite sure if that's the case for everyone. I also feel like the prayer circle swooped in and stole most of the limelight. Because what do we know about times of racial tension? If there can be some way to depict the races getting along, then it's going to get more attention. It reminds me of that brief trend after Ferguson, the one of white cops hugging black kids as if to say "not all cops ___." It's diverting attention away from the real issue at hand; black students are getting threatened for non-violent acts.
Raven,
ReplyDeleteEven in the few years since we were in high school, I've seen a development in how youth are taking on injustices in school systems and other institutions which dominate their lives. Much of this new movement revolves around adultism, which is much too large of a concept to discuss here, but it's amazing to me how these new movements and attitudes develop in just three years. During my high school years, I felt that I had no say in how my school system was run and I'm hoping that changes can begun to be made.
To get to the point, do you think that the majority of youth can institute a change at Germantown HS or within Shelby County Schools? Students interested in social justice have sought out ways to discuss the problems which youth have faced for as long as there have been youth, but these aren't the mainstream yet.
Alexa,
It's always uplifting to see stories like the one you posted and I'm incredibly glad that students at GHS are showing support. But listening to Raven's point, which I've never thought of in depth, I find that I agree. It is absolutely necessary for people to show solidarity, as allies or within the community, but the media often focuses on that one event of solidarity, overshadowing the actual issue. I don't think that's the fault of those who organize solidarity events; media outlets just tend to avoid more controversial topics when inspiring ones are occurring afterward. If I'm understanding Raven, one act of a community connecting does not change the fact that members of that community are facing systemic oppression. I feel that it is necessary to see the light in stories like the one mentioned above, but that we must return to the more sobering reality that the problems which led to a prayer circle are still present.
I agree with Raven and Kala. Specifically with this notion that one unifying act of a community does not negate the multiple acts of oppression. I would challenge you, Alexa, to think critically about why brought this article into this discussion.
ReplyDeleteI want to focus my comment on Kala's point about students' perception of their ability to affect change. When I was in high school, I would agree with you that I didn't think that I had the ability to change anything, however, I didn't see anything at my school that I needed to change. (Maybe I didn't have the knowledge to understand what needed to be changed.) I think students who are in high school now have easy access to organizing practices and the non-mainstream narrative about the issues about the black freedom struggle through the internet and social media. I think the access to this knowledge allows students to connect the larger issues to institutions (schools) that are present in their lives.